34 



Annals of Horticulture. 



acterizes the movement, brings back to our gardens the en- 

 dearments of long associations and carries us towards the 

 love of nature rather than the admiration of the conservatory. 



The most prominent phase of conventionalism in ornamen- 

 tation, however, finds expression in carpet-bedding. So in- 

 tense has become the praise of gaudiness and mass in color 

 that carpet-bedding has even become confounded with land- 

 scape gardening, and it very often receives that appellation. 

 Landscape gardeners have planted themselves firmly against 

 the current, but they have for the most part acquired unpopu- 

 larity for their pains. A most powerful invective has lately 

 been hurled at this consuming fashion by William McMillan, 

 of the Buffalo parks. Indeed, Mr. McMillan's essay carries 

 so much of the gist of an appreciation of nature and at the 

 same time exposes so much of the grossness of the fashion, 

 that it deserves the first place in our horticultural literature of 

 the year. This paper was presented before the Society of 

 American Florists, and has been published in some of the 

 periodicals ; and everywhere it has aroused discussion. It is 

 the utterance of a taste which is near to nature and which can 

 interpret her. It may be above the average or even the fre- 

 quent conception of beauty, but its standard is unassailable 

 and immutable. "On a warm summer day, when a gentle 

 breeze fans the foliage of the birch or poplar, the rythmical 

 whispering and dancing motion of the leaves, will, to a lover 

 of these trees, hum sweet music in his ear, and reveal a 

 beauty not heard or seen by other people." 



§ 2. GENERAL NOTES OF ORNAMENTALS. BY F. L. TEMPLE, 

 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



To give even an outline treating of the growth and develop- 

 ment of the present passion for ornamental plants and trees, 

 which is so marked a feature of American horticulture at this 

 day, would require large space, but some facts are too inter- 

 esting to pass over in silence, although they do not come 

 strictly under annals of 1889. 



Our early settlers were people of some culture, and brought 

 from Europe with them the love of flowers and the habits of 

 using them, and never lost fully this refined instinct, even when 

 their descendants passed their lives in remote and rude sections 

 of the eastern states. They also brought with them the few pre- 



